


The Way Things Work Out

by LazyWriterGirl



Series: In Any Scenario - Korrasami Month 2016 [5]
Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Beta-Reader!Asami, Editor!Asami, F/F, Fic Author!Korra, Korra is Sort of A NEET, Korrasami Month 2016, Naga is A Good Dog, Prompt: Writer, Writer!Korra, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-15
Updated: 2016-11-15
Packaged: 2018-08-31 08:02:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8570746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LazyWriterGirl/pseuds/LazyWriterGirl
Summary: Korra knows that it’s crazy, knows that this kind of thing only happens in fanfiction—and sometimes in mainstream media—but could it be that ASatomobileCalledYearning and Asami Sato…are one and the same?The AU that literally nobody asked for; also, me still answering prompts in the dumbest way possible!





	

**Author's Note:**

> Gonna preface again, this time by saying that I am disappointed in myself this prompt around--like, I hate it but I have to post it because my completionist mindset won't let me ignore it. But I hope that you're able to glean some enjoyment out of this anyway. As with all my Korrasami Month works, I will be editing this and possibly expanding it once November is over and I have more time.
> 
> Also could anybody let me know if this pops up on Tumblr properly? I feel like I have to message the Korrasami Month mods but also I don't want to be a bother. T^T

The morning starts off much the same as it always does, with a few emails awaiting her attention—one in particular catches her eye; one with the words “See doc for notes…write away!” and an attachment and nothing else from a contact listed as “ASatomobileCalledYearning”.

Her favourite— _only_ —beta-reader. Well, the only one who’s lasted for longer than a single fic, if she’s being honest, but it’s the thought that counts, right?

Korra decides that she’d be better off looking at the email later, when she’s in the right headspace to go about editing this same damn chapter of her stupid fic for the eighth fucking time. It’s for a purposefully overwrought, dramatic romance that she’d been dared to write and she’s liking how different it feels from her usual sports team and high school AUs but—and this is not to say that she doesn’t appreciate ASatomobile’s assistance—it is getting to the point of idiotic, how many times she has to go back and change a word or two in the same chapter of the same fic.

If ASatomobile didn’t have such a talent for editing, she would have cut ties a long time ago.

Her schedule isn’t exactly difficult to follow, now that there’s nothing like school to get in her way. She wakes up sometime between nine and ten, even on weekends, and eats a breakfast consisting of either cereal or whatever she can scrounge up from the takeout she’d not managed to finish the night before. She walks her dog, Naga. Tries to write when she gets home. Eventually she gives up and plays video games while lounging around on the couch. She walks her dog again. Tries to write when she gets home. And rinse, repeat.

Every single day.

Oh, she goes out, sure; she spends time with her friends when they aren’t too busy with their real-people lives…but for the most part she just stays home. She just stays home with the door locked and the shutters closed and all the junk food—in the original packaging because screw washing dishes—settled in beside her on the couch as she attempts to write words that don’t seem to want to co-operate with her on most days. Also, she loves her dog to pieces—more than she does anybody except for Mom and Dad, who don’t live even remotely near enough to visit with any regularity—and the only one in who can rely on her dropping all of her plans for their sake is Naga, so there’s that.

And Korra is fine with that, mostly, really, except that sometimes she _does_ get lonely.

 

Then again, that’s why she has a friend like ASatomobileCalledYearning.

 

Well, a sort-of-friend. An internet friend who makes her edit scenes until they’re overdone and she hates those tricky scenes even though they’re technically much better after all the work, but who is actually also very nice once the chapter is up and done with. Yeah, that. The beta to her fic-author; the editor to her writer; they’re friends…sort of, in the way that only two complete strangers can become friends when working so closely together on a project of this type. Korra loves it, secretly, in a way she’s never loved asking a stranger for help editing her work. Even if ASatomobile is downright _anal_ about some things that she always, _always_ refuses to budge on, because they’re stylistically her choice and strict rules of grammar be damned as long as she’s making it clear that what could be perceived as mistakes are intentional uses of language.

It’s about nine hours after she wakes up before Korra gets around to opening up the attachment, and she’s unsurprised to find a _ton_ of track-changes and comment bubbles, but honestly, it’s fine. She doesn’t know why, but there’s something about the way that ASatomobile edits her work that makes her feel comfortable. Supported.

And maybe it’s a little pathetic, but Korra thinks sometimes that she’d really like to meet the person—the girl, as she’s only recently learned—and behind the username, because maybe, possibly—and this is just a maybe-possibly and not a sure thing—she might have a teensy little crush on the impossibly-thorough editor who constantly pushes her to do the best she can for her readers and for herself as a writer.

 

_1: The phrasing around here is a little awkward. Fix it?_

_5: This would be good but in chapter 5 you had him_ destroying _the letter, so it wouldn’t make sense for him to have it now…but maybe you could have him mention it? Or the document from her desk?_

_8: Oh wow, really? Not a problem, I’m just amazed. How’d you come up with this? It’s great! :D_

_12: I don’t think that expression is appropriate in this context, try this._

_14: Just changed it from “you’re” to “your”. Did you try to write while you were half asleep, again? That’s not healthy! :/_

_18: This is problematic, but I can’t pinpoint how yet. Just let me know if you re-tool it so that I can check to see if it still doesn’t sit right. And if this is a stylistic thing just let me know too, so that I’ll unmark it and leave it alone! :P_

_24: Something is missing here. A description of the surroundings would be good, so that people have a better idea of where they’re standing before the fight breaks out, and how people are moving once it’s happening. Write away!_

All in all, Korra has to sift through about forty comments and suggestions, though she’s fairly confident that most of the issues have been addressed by the time she’s finished. She fires off a reply email with the fic attached, writing a short blurb in the body of the email just to thank ASatomobile, as she always does. Once that’s done, Korra stretches, first her arms, then her neck, and then she sits completely still as she debates giving up on any more words for the day. Naga is whining for her third walk, which should really be soon, and she doesn’t have much more to say so she closes her laptop and stumbles over to her boots.

 

The weather in Republic City is nice this time of year, not bitingly cold but not stupidly warm either; a nice enough balance that all she really needs is a light jacket or sweater, a pair of autumn-appropriate boots, and also perhaps a scarf or a thin pair of gloves. Naga, whose fur is unusually thick due to her breed of dog having been bred to survive the harsh winters of the South, seems to like the nip of the breeze as it whooshes past. Personally, the breeze is the worst part of Naga’s running-walks; it had been okay when her hair was longer, but with a bob it’s so hard to keep her ears warm without caving and wearing the dumb penguin-pattern earmuffs her mother sent her as a joke a few years ago.

 

Naga whines as they near a food stand and the smell of grilling meat wafts towards Korra’s nose. She’s determined to just walk past the stand and finish Naga’s walk until she remembers that she hasn’t actually eaten anything that most people would consider to be food. “Want some chicken, girl?”

Naga’s ears perk up at the mention of her favourite treat, and Korra can’t help but laugh at how much of a pig her dog is. She walks up to the vendor, a familiar old man who knows what she tends to order, and he hands her a paper plate with pieces of chicken taken right off the grill; from the lack of spices and sauce on the meat, she can tell he’d been prepping these just for Naga.

“Thanks!” she says when he smiles and hands her two sticks of barbecue for herself.

He shakes his head softly. “No problem, kid.”

“Come on then, Naga, where should we eat?”

Naga doesn’t seem to care, really, as long as she gets her chicken soon, but she begrudgingly guides Korra to a bench in the middle of the park. There’s a girl sitting there already, typing away busily on a laptop, but it’s one of those long benches that could feasibly seat three people; and from the friendly nod that the girl gives her Korra assumes that it’s fine to sit on the other end.

The kind stranger has really pretty eyes, and Korra hopes she’s not blushing; pretty girls have that kind of effect on her, and even though she knows it’s kind of dorky it’s not like she can help it. Instead she just makes a show of shivering a little—maybe she can pretend her face is just cold—as she sets the plate down before Naga and says, “Pace yourself, you silly girl.” Naga, of course, does not oblige, and the snorting she makes as she inhales her meat is almost gross enough to make Korra lose her appetite. Almost.

A pretty, throaty laugh makes her turn her head just as the first bite of chicken enters her mouth. It’s the girl on the other end of the bench. “I’m sorry; normally I’d mind my own business but your dog is really cute.”

“You hear that, Naga? She thinks you’re cute even when you’re disgusting,” Korra says as she pats Naga’s head. “Naga’s okay, I guess,” she says when she turns back to the other girl, though she knows that the smile on her face is more dotingly proud than anything else.

The stranger smiles and laughs again, “She’s beautiful. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a dog like her before.”

“That’s because we breed them special back home—er, in the South,” she says. She’s not sure why she’s given out such a detail but it’s almost definitely because she wants to clarify that her family doesn’t have some weird dog-breeding facility here in the city—and totally not because she’s kind of hoping for the other girl to ask her more questions so that they can talk more while her dog makes the _most disgusting_ noises ever known to humanity.

Also, and this hopefully doesn’t sound too pathetic, but she’s wondering how this girl can come off as perfectly engaged in conversation while her hands are practically flying over her keyboard—like, she wants to ask because seriously that is a skill worth having. Sure, she looks back at the screen and seems to think about things for a few seconds before writing something down, but Korra doesn’t get the feeling that she’s being ignored, which is weird. It’s different. She, for one, knows that she barely sees anything other than the words when she’s writing a story.

But she doesn’t know what Pretty-Eyes is doing so really that’s not the best analogue she could possibly be making.

“You’re from the South? That’s cool! I’ve always wanted to go but I don’t do too well with the cold,” says Pretty-Eyes. Korra can’t believe that this girl is talking to her, but she goes with it because this is the first time she’s felt so comfortable with a stranger in a while.

“Yeah, it’s pretty cold, but if you’re dressed right it’s not bad at all! If it’s like a health concern for you though, the summer is usually not too bad…kinda feels like this. A little cooler.”

The girl smiles and holds up a finger, checking over whatever she’s working on before tapping on her trackpad, typing out a few quick sentences, and closing the laptop with a contented sigh. “Sorry, I was just working on something…for a friend.”

Korra smiles because she’s not sure how to follow up from that. Her phone pings once, then dings twice: an email and two messages on Bumblr. She leaves it in her pocket for now. If ASatomobile has seen her edits, then that means the email will have the new doc attached, and she doesn’t think she’d be any good at editing things on her phone.

Korra hopes that there was less for her beta-reader-slash-the-most-thorough-peer-editor-ever to have to correct, because honestly this chapter should have been up a week ago and she’s getting antsy about it. “That’s really cool of you to help out,” she says finally, when Pretty Eyes has tucked her laptop back in its bag; from the looks of it, it’s high-end, the kind of thing that Korra has only ever dreamed of owning.

“Not at all,” says the girl, folding her hands in her lap like a perfect lady. “My friend is really talented; she just doesn’t have a lot of patience for editing herself so I figured it was the least I could do.”

“Y—that’s amazing,” Korra says, because it probably wouldn’t be the best idea to gush to a total stranger about how amazing they are.

Pretty Eyes glances at her watch, and even though Korra really would like to talk more she can tell that this strange little friendly chat is about to end.

“I’m really sorry, but I was supposed to be heading home a few minutes ago…just got caught up.” She stands, and Korra doesn’t know why but she stands as well. Naga rests on her haunches, looking up at them with a stupidly contented look on her face. “It was nice to meet you, Naga,” says the girl, and Korra watches in surprise as Naga allows herself to be petted by somebody who isn’t her. “And you too…?”

“Korra,” she says, offering her hand to the girl. “And it was great to meet you, too…?”

“Asami.”

 _That’s a nice name._ “Great to meet you, Asami.”

“See you around?”

“Yeah, yeah sure,” Korra says, and as she watches Asami walk off she can feel the big, dopey smile on her face starting to take over everything. “Isn’t that weird, girl?”She scratches Naga’s ear. “And all because you’re the worst eater in the world. I think you deserve some more chicken.”

Naga’s entire body perks up at that, and Korra has to shake her head with fondness. If it weren’t for this big dumb cutie she would have never met Pretty-Eyes Asami.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

It takes another ten months—five-sixths of a _year—_ before Korra can say that she’s finished with the damn fic she’s been working on. Ten months of constant back-and-forth with ASatomobile. Ten months of going absolutely bat-shit crazy every single time her phone went off. When it’s all over and people have seemed to quiet down after letting her know their thoughts, Korra is proud of herself, but also pretty glad that she’s bothered to do this. The influx of attention she’s been receiving is nice; really nice. It’s not that she would call her readers “fans”, more like “casual friends”, but she really likes the fact that now, even her older work is getting some recognition on the basis of her name.

 

And she knows that she has ASatomobile to thank for it.

 

Well, ASatomobile for editing and correcting all of her mistakes and helping her to cover up any plotholes and just…for being there through the stress of the writing. Korra smiles fondly thinking of her friend—they’re really friends now, after all. As a writer, she knows how it important it is to find an editor you respect and trust, and while they don’t even know each other’s first names, she respects and trusts ASatomobileCalledYearning. Honestly the stupid fic would never have gotten finished without her.

 

It would never have gotten so damn popular without her.

 

Korra also has her girlfriend—god but that still makes her blush even after four months—to thank. From total strangers to the great place they’re at right now, Korra is still amazed at how lucky she is to have met Asami. She owes the other girl for so much, too.

For being there physically to support her; for knowing just when to tell her to put the laptop away; for coming over on nights when Korra had been chained to her desk by the oppressive invisible restraints placed on her by word counts and chapter deadlines; for not pushing Korra to talk about her fic and making it clear that she’ll be waiting to read Korra’s writing whenever Korra’s ready to give her a username to look up. For taking Naga for walks because Korra doesn’t have anybody else to help her take her silly, amazing dog out and for some reason Asami and Naga bonded really easily.

 

In a way, she really does owe her relationship to her sloppy dog, a thought that definitely does not influence the number of treats that Korra gives to Naga that night before Asami comes over for dinner.

 

Now if only she could come up with an idea. A concept. Anything.

 

“Hey babe, how was your writing today?”

“Not great,” she says. “I can’t come up with anything to follow up to my last fic.”

“I’m sure you’ll figure something out eventually,” Asami says as she sets down a bag of groceries and starts pre-heating the oven. “You’re brilliant.”

“Hope so. Hey, how’s that writer friend of yours? Do you still edit her stuff?” Korra doesn’t think she’s ever heard mention of a username, either, so it’s not like she could check anything out. Not that she’s weirdly jealous or anything, but it would be kind of cool to see the kind of writer that Asami works with. Asami doesn’t answer the question right away, or at all, but the sound of the faucet is pretty loud in her apartment, so Korra lets it slide. It’s not that important anyway, really.

It isn’t until a week later that Korra thinks that something weird is up, because things are starting to not make sense. Like the fact that she and Asami are into a lot of the same fandoms but they’ve never interacted before in spite of being active on the same fanfiction site. Or the fact that Asami, who’s never read her fic, sometimes says things that remind her of the encouragement she’s used to getting from ASatomobile.

Korra knows that it’s crazy, knows that this kind of thing only happens _in_ fanfiction—and sometimes in mainstream media—but could it be that ASatomobileCalledYearning (the girl she’s come to rely on so much as a way of improving and enjoying her own writing) and Asami Sato (the girl she’s come to rely on so much as a way to improve and enjoy her own life)…are one and the same? Because that would be…that would be too perfect.

She buries the thought in her head and doesn’t think about it for a while.

 

Until the next time her and Asami are having a date night that’s mostly just them sitting on opposite ends of the couch writing. It’s a familiar thing, something that they’ve done a lot in the last few months. Korra is talking to ASatomobile as she works on yet another idea that she’s sure she’s going to reject tomorrow. “Ugh!”

“What’s wrong, babe?”

“Nothing. I just…I _can’t_ think of anything.”

“Ah. My friend is having similar troubles. Is there anything that I can do for you?”

“It’s okay, I’m fine,” she says, shooting Asami a grin.

“You’ll be fine. You’re an amazing writer, babe.”

Korra turns back to the doc. The words on it are annoying. She hates them. To distract herself she opens up her Bumblr chat, clicking on ASatomobile’s icon.

 

TheAvatarLives: Ugh I CAN’T EVEN COME UP WITH ANYTHING GOOD.

ASatomobileCalledYearning: I’m sure that’s not true!

TheAvatarLives: Nooo.

ASatomobileCalledYearning: So just…I dunno. Think of something else to do for now?

ASatomobileCalledYearning: And come back to it later?

TheAvatarLives: Sounds good…

 

 

Korra stops typing. She doesn’t know why she notices it, but there’s a trade-off. There’s a pattern to their typing, hers and Asami’s. A call-and-response. Could it be…?

Asami looks up at her just then, and it’s as if she’s noticed the same thing. “Korra?”

“Asami.”

Naga hops up into the space between them, trapping both of their feet underneath her weight.

“Are you—”

“Oh my Raava!”

Naga jumps off, annoyed by how loud her humans are getting, and Korra puts her laptop on the tray-table beside her, crawling up into Asami’s space. Asami smiles at her fondly. “What?”

“Can I see your laptop? Please?”

Asami laughs—she’s figured it out already, and Korra is sure that she’s right, but she needs to see it. “Sure.” Asami’s bright eyes flash prettily in the dim light and when her laptop is turned around Korra sees the Bumblr window open, sees the perfect mirror to her conversation with ASatomobileCalledYearning in a box in the bottom right corner of the screen.

“You’re…I can’t believe it!” She laughs, long and loud enough to startle Naga, who runs back up to them in time to see Korra collapsing on top of Asami in a fit of giggles. “Did you know?”

Asami laughs too, more because of how Korra looks than because of the conversation, but she shakes her head. “Not until like five minutes ago.”

“This is so fucking weird! But like…in the most amazing way.”

“I know,” Asami says, one hand cupping Korra’s cheek fondly. “See, I knew you were an amazing writer. This only proves that I didn’t know _how_ amazing until now.”

Korra’s mind is racing. This is unbelievable. As in, she honestly cannot believe that this is happening right now, but it is. Who would have thought that ASatomobile and Asami was the same person all this time? Korra thinks that if she were smart she would have noticed it earlier, would have noticed it on the afternoon they first met, when her phone went off shortly after Asami sent whatever she had sent. The edits for that one chapter, Korra now realizes.

This is…this is amazing. There’s no other way around it.

“What are you thinking right now?” Asami asks. “Is it weird? Now that we know…do you still want me to be your beta-reader?”

Korra looks at the way that Asami worries her bottom lip, the way that she seems so genuinely worried that Korra won’t want to work with her anymore. But that’s not possible. “No, never. You’re my girlfriend, and my best friend, and the best editor I’ve ever had. If you still wanna help me, I’d love it.”

“Of course!”

“Great,” Korra says, pushing up on her arms so that she can land a kiss on Asami’s lips. “Oh, and guess what?”

“What?”

“I think I’ve got an idea of what to write now!”

“Oh?”

“Yeah,” Korra says. And she kinda does. Because this, this is too good of a story to pass up. It’s funny, she thinks, how things work out. “I hope you’re ready to edit a ModernAU love story.”

Asami catches the glimmer of amusement that Korra is sure is obvious in her eyes, and she laughs. “Of course. Write away!”


End file.
